Ok, so you’ve got yourself a nice new Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-Lite Wireless Access Point to modernise your network – Awesome. If you are still in the research stage, then take a look through a recent blog post about Unboxing and Testing the Ubiquiti UniFi Access Point AP-AC-Lite so at least you can see what you get in the box and some of the awesome reporting statistics that you can see once you have the device up and running. We’re not going to be covering the topics that are covered in that blog post, we’re going to assume you’ve got it out of the box and have plugged it in then we can look at how to actually get it set up on your network – since plugging the device in itself isn’t enough with UniFi equipment.
First Plugin of UniFi AP-AC-Lite Wireless Access Point
Ok, so now you’ve plugged your device into your network, it’s time to bring the device onto your network. What I mean by that is that just because you’ve plugged the device in, unlike many other IT network hardware equipment where you plug it in and it’s automatically available for use without configuration (albeit, without configuration certain manufacturers and devices would cease to work anyhow…), with the UniFi equipment you need to officially welcome it onto your network as a trusted device. This process is called the Adoption process.
Once you’ve got the device plugged in, you’ll notice that the physical device has a solid white light on, then turns to a flashing white light for a minute or so, then turns back to a solid white light. What this means is that your device is not yet adopted by your network.
And here’s what that looks like in your UniFi Controller Software. If you aren’t sure what that is, we’ve done a few other blog posts that cover this off in a bit more detail including How to Setup a Ubiquiti UniFi Managed Switch On Your Network so take a read over that if you haven’t yet got your UniFi Controller Software set up and running.
In the above image you can see there are two wireless access points on the network, one that has already been adopted and one that is yet to be adopted so you can see the difference for how the devices display.
Adopt the UniFi AP-AC-Lite Wireless Access Point Device
To welcome your new device onto your network officially simply click onto the device that is pending adoption which will open a pop out window as can be seen below;
Simply click on the Adopt button to get started. Once you’ve done this, you’ll notice the status of the device turn to a blue light and within the UniFi Controller Software the device will switch to Pending Adoption, then Provisioning. Once it’s done you’ll notice the device is ready to go;
Then you’ll notice that your device is ready to go within the UniFi Controller Software too. The device doesn’t have a green light beneath it as there are no connected wireless clients connected to the device yet.
One point to note is that if you’ve just received your UniFi Wireless Access Point, then it’s highly likely that there are some updates waiting for you to install on the firmware itself. You’ll notice a little icon in the top right of the device in the above image (not shown, as all devices are up to date) so just click on that and get your devices up to date. There is always going to be the natural lag between when the firmware was originally installed at the manufacturing plant to when it arrives on your doorstep. So thankfully with smart software technology and smart devices you can easily bring your devices up to date with ease. Traditional legacy network hardware often isn’t as smart with this, although many do try to have some form of notification that there are firmware updates ready for installation, once you can find the hidden notification in the system.
Configure a Wireless Network
Now that you’ve got your devices connected, you need to create yourself a wireless network. Out of the box you don’t get a wireless networks configured, you need to configure this yourself. This mainly consists of two parts;
- Creating an SSID, aka. a Service Set IDentifier, or more commonly known as the broadcast name of your wireless network like what you see when you try to connect to local wireless networks, it’s the name that identifies itself
- Giving your wireless network a password so that your users can connect securely
To do this, simply navigate to your Settings page (bottom left of the UniFi Controller Softwre, the Cog icon). And you’ll be able to create a wireless network within there. For simplicity in this blog post we’re going to just look at a LAN, so no VLANs and complex Profiles etc. Just so you can get up and running quickly. Top tip – Switch to the Classic Settings user interface as at the time of writing, this still supports more features and functionality. You’re probably fine with basic networks using the more modern interface, but you’ll soon find that basic networking infrastructure settings are invisible in the modern interface at the moment, they will be coming in due course though.
And before anyone points out the obvious…. Yes, give your wireless network (SSID) a decent name and don’t choose ‘password123’ as the security key. Also you probably don’t want to select the option to be an Open network from a Security perspective. This is rarely a good idea, and even when you’re using secure VLANs, you should really consider this from a business perspective before providing open, free and inconspicuous WiFi connectivity as there are legal considerations you need to make. But anyhow that’s for another conversation at another time, so for now, that’s how you set up a basic wireless network for your UniFi AP-AC-Lite Wireless Access Point device (and any other similar models…). Once you’re done with this, you’ll then be able to connect to your wireless network from any devices within range. Simple.
Summary
Awesome, you’re good to go! We’re going to keep this blog post simple and not cover anything related to VLANs or managed switches and unmanaged switches. We’ve covered some of these topics before and we’ll be covering some of the other topics in the near future. For now, you’re all set up with your Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-Lite Wireless Access Point so you’re good to start using it.
Hopefully this blog post has been useful to get you up and running with a very basic network configuration using the Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-Lite Wireless Access Point on your network. There are many different models from the UniFi range that this same logic applies to for your UniFi Wireless Access Point devices, so this isn’t really specific to this model.
Michael Cropper